Punjab on March 28 launched 109 new Aam Aadmi Clinics in Fatehgarh Sahib, taking the total number of such centres in the state to 990. The rollout was announced in the presence of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, with the government saying another 400 clinics are under implementation.
The latest expansion underscores the Punjab government’s continued emphasis on primary healthcare delivery through decentralised facilities designed to bring consultations, medicines and basic diagnostic services closer to residents. At the event, Kejriwal said the clinics are offering 107 medicines and 47 diagnostic tests free of cost, and described the model as a key pillar of the state’s effort to reduce out-of-pocket healthcare spending.
According to figures shared at the programme, the Aam Aadmi Clinic network has so far recorded around five crore outpatient visits. The government used that number to argue that the clinics have become a regular point of access for routine treatment, especially for patients seeking consultations, medicines and follow-up care for common and chronic conditions.
The health infrastructure push is also being linked to the state’s insurance expansion. Kejriwal said Punjab is issuing health cards to 65 lakh families, of which around 30 lakh have already been distributed. He added that about 1.65 lakh people have availed treatment under the scheme so far.
Taken together, the clinic network and the health-insurance programme reflect a two-tier public-health strategy. The clinics are intended to serve as neighbourhood-level entry points for primary care, while the insurance scheme is aimed at protecting households from the financial burden of hospital-based treatment for more serious illnesses. In policy terms, the model seeks to combine access with affordability—an issue that remains central to state-level healthcare delivery, particularly in rural and lower-income segments.
At the event, Kejriwal said the government was closely monitoring the functioning of the clinics, including the availability of doctors, medicines and tests. He said feedback from patients had indicated that services were accessible and convenient. The state’s argument is that a localised primary-care network, if properly staffed and supplied, can ease pressure on larger hospitals by addressing early-stage treatment needs before conditions escalate.
Mann, in his remarks, placed healthcare alongside education, electricity and agriculture as key sectors of public spending. While the political messaging was present at the event, the administrative focus remained on healthcare delivery, service access and the scaling up of welfare infrastructure. For the government, the clinic network has emerged as one of its most visible service-delivery projects since it took office in 2022.
From a public-finance perspective, such programmes also feed into a broader debate on how states allocate resources between capital-intensive hospital systems and lower-cost primary care infrastructure. Punjab’s approach appears to be to expand both ends of that spectrum simultaneously: neighbourhood clinics for first-level treatment, and insurance-backed hospital access for higher-value care.
With the network now approaching the 1,000 mark, the next phase of expansion will be watched for operational consistency as much as numerical growth. The long-term test for the programme will lie not only in the number of clinics opened, but in sustained utilisation, supply continuity, staffing and measurable health outcomes. For now, the government is presenting the addition of 109 clinics as another step in building a statewide primary-healthcare system anchored in free access and early intervention.
